Hodgdon Fire Department’s Save The Basement Strategy Works Like A Charm

HODGDON, Maine — Sparks created from jump-starting a vehicle are being blamed for a fire that destroyed a family-operated garage and salvage business in Hodgdon on Friday morning. Crews from three departments responded just after 9:30 a.m. to the fire at Benn Auto Sales, Inc., on Calais Road and found the three-story barn housing the business fully involved, according to Rick Tidd, assistant chief of the Hodgdon Volunteer Fire Department. “They tried to hit it with a [fire] extinguisher, but that pushed it right up the wooden walls and into the attic,” Tidd said Friday afternoon. “This was an old barn that had been there a lot of years.” The building’s contents included numerous combustibles, including barrels of waste oil and old tires, Tidd said. (read more at Bangor Daily News)